Kiss Me, Evans?
by fredluvr09
Summary: It is October of their 7th year at Hogwarts. James Potter has been on exactly three dates with Lily Evans, and she still won't let him kiss her! / Currently only M for a smattering of adult language. Disclaimer: HP belongs to JKR. Always.
1. Chapter One

*In Which Lily Puts Her Hands on Her Hips*

* * *

"Kiss me, Evans?"

"No."

"Just a little one?"

"For the one hundredth time, James. No."

Lily stood in the corridor with her hands on her hips, a stance that was becoming all too familiar for James Potter.

"Why not?" he demanded, definitely not whining. "We've been going out for like-"

"We've been on three dates," Lily said firmly. "That's hardly grounds for a snog."

"Most girls give it up after three dates," James grumbled, under his breath. Still not whining.

"Do I look like _most girls_ to you, Potter?"

"Well, no, of course not! But..." Okay, now he was kind of whining.

"Quit whining, mate!" Leave it to Sirius to point out the obvious-especially when it really didn't need to be pointed out. "We're all adults here; give it at least four dates!"

Lily Evans whirled on her _not_-boyfriend's best friend, and now she was giving _him_ the hands-on-hips glare. Before she even spoke, Sirius was backing away, hands raised in the air, hair swinging in his face.

"Right, right. Sorry, Evans." He shrugged now, smirking. "I guess I'll just leave you to it... Good luck, Prongs," he shouted over his shoulder as he retreated. Sarcastic, James noted, as ever.

As Lily turned back to James, he was running a hand through his hair, now fully recovered from his bout of temporary insanity-it would seem.

"No, no, you're right, Evans. As usual." He grinned. "Let me at least take you out on Saturday night?"

"You have detention on Saturday night," Remus pointed out, unhelpfully. He had taken a seat on a nearby bench once it had become clear that his friends would be stopping here indefinitely. He looked back down to his book. Next to him, Peter looked as crestfallen as James probably should have felt at Moony's reminder.

"Well fuck that, obviously," James announced, glancing at Lily with hope that her face would light up as he so clearly cared more about her than rules. He was sorely disappointed.

"What are you two even still doing here?" Lily narrowed her eyes at Remus and Peter and seemed bent on ignoring James altogether.

Remus looked a bit worried-although he was not, perhaps, as worried as he ought to have been. "Just...finishing this...sentence. Done," he proclaimed, snapping his book shut and grabbing his bag. "Let's _go,_ Wormy."

Lily turned back to James as his last two friends in the world (in the dramatic sense, of course) departed, leaving him alone with..._Okay, maybe this isn't so bad._

The redhead sighed and quirked her lips ever so slightly. (James loved it when she quirked her lips. He had seen that word in novels before and thought it was a silly, unnecessary, unrealistic description. Until he saw Lily make her mouth do exactly the thing that could only be described as 'quirking'. Which was a really odd word, come to think of it...)

James snapped back to reality as those adorable quirked lips formed the words he'd waited his whole life to hear:

"Are you free on Friday?"

(Well, his whole life since he was eleven, at least.)

* * *

Before they made it around the corner at the end of the hall, Remus heard Lily _ask James out_ and turned to give his mate a thumbs-up. James never looked his way, but Remus figured he could congratulate Prongs later and continued on.

With one last, oddly earnest look at the boy and girl in the hallway, Peter Pettigrew followed his friend around the corner Sirius had taken moments earlier. Sometimes Wormtail thought he wanted James and Lily to work out even more than James did.

But that was ridiculous, of course.

Nobody in the universe wanted James and Lily to work out more than James did.

Except, perhaps, the universe itself.


	2. Chapter Two

*In Which James Discovers 'The Evans Problem'*

* * *

There were some things only Lily could know. Things she could never share with anyone. Like her irrational fear of other people's socks. Or the real reason she hated mayonnaise. Or why she faked enjoyment of The Who.

Or that the reason she suggested James take her out on Friday night was because she knew he would have to call it an early night in preparation for his Quidditch match the next morning.

Truth be told, Lily was terrified of liking James, let alone kissing him. But for all her terror, Lily knew-as only Lily could know-that very very very deep down (like, seriously deep), she did really want James to kiss her, and she thought it was kind of cute that he kept asking.

And since this was something that only Lily knew, James remained happily oblivious to the potential date-ruiner that was his Quidditch career. That is, until he began planning their fourth date.

* * *

"F-fuck Quidditch then," Peter stammered out. (He thought cursing was cool, and he thought James and Sirius were the height of cool, and James and Sirius never had any trouble cursing, so naturally, Peter joined them in profanity. However, Peter had never said so much as "gosh" before coming to Hogwarts, so even at 17, he sometimes found harsh language difficult to pronounce as casually as his friends. Remus, on the other hand, rarely swore-but not for lack of creativity. More on that later.)

"Don't be daft, Wormy." Sirius waved an arm distractedly. "Clearly, Prongs, you'll just have to...uh..."

"I swear to Merlin if you say 'cancel', I will throw you out that window," James bit out. "This is awful. Damn Quidditch-I even scheduled practice at 5, so that's even less time! Why didn't I think about this before? And if we make it out of the castle, we had better be sure and make it back by 10 or the wards'll be up and then I'll be well and truly fu-"

"I don't see why this is such a dilemma," Remus cut him off. "I mean, it's not like she's going to sleep with you. So the date can't last more than a few hours anyway, right?" He tried not to say this with a smirk, but James wasn't even looking at him.

Instead, the irate-and, frankly, insane-Quidditch captain was rummaging through his trunk, tossing items around the room at random.

"What-if-we have-a-REALLY-great-time?" he grunted, tossing his shoes almost rhythmically. "I mean," he pulled his head up out of his trunk, but continued the frantic digging, "what if we're sitting at the Three Broomsticks, and all of a sudden she's like 'Potter-I-love-you-let's-snog' and I have to say 'Sorry, love, it's bed for me. See you tomorrow after we kick Slytherin's ass!'" He glared around the room at his friends. "Do you understand how much that would SUCK?" The last question was clearly directed at Remus.

"Geez, Prongs. Sorryyyy," Remus muttered. "Just ignore me, then." He resumed reading, or at least the pretense of reading.

"God, Moony, what's got into you?" demanded Sirius, reaching across to grab the book out of Lupin's hand.

"Hey-!"

"It's the new moon, what, Sunday? You should be in a great mood, right?" Sirius flipped idly through the stolen book.

"Um, I am also a person, and, so being, occasionally experience emotions unrelated to the cycle of the moon." Remus frowned. "Now you've gone and lost my place."

"Forget that," James moaned. "What about my Evans problem?"

"I'd hardly call it a 'problem'," Wormtail noted. "I mean, you're going out with Lily Evans, aren't you?"

James allowed a moment to consider this (perceptive) remark. "Well yeah. But, I've, you know, already gone out with her. This is the fourth date. The first three I spent trying to get her to give me chance, now I've got to convince her to 'give me a chance'." He smirked a little. "If you know what I mean."

The other three Marauders groaned.

"Oh, we know what you mean, mate," said Sirius, elbowing Moony, who took the opportunity to grab his novel back. "But face it. You're not getting lucky with Evans on Friday."

"I didn't mean that, exactly," James countered, thoughtful. He stood up from his mysterious trunk-rummaging and went to take a seat on the floor next to Lupin's bed. He mused for a moment, unusually quiet, and then threw his head back to bang it on the side of the bed, looking most miserable.

"Mostly, I just really want to kiss her."


	3. Chapter Three

*In Which Lily Wears Other People's Clothes*

* * *

Lily Evans could never find a good time to go shopping, and the internet had not yet been invented.

For this, she was most eternally _un_grateful.

* * *

"'Scuse me, coming through!" shouted Marlene McKinnon as she shoved her way through the portrait hole into the Common Room.

Sirius, sitting in an armchair near the girls' stair, ducked to escape the duffel bag swinging from Marlene's arm as the girl raced up the stairs-presumably up to the seventh-year girls' dormitory. He shook his head violently, splattering a few drops of post-practice sweat onto the rug.

"Wonder what that's all about," muttered Peter, continuing to scrawl homework answers.

Remus, sitting next to him on the sofa, looked up from his book only long enough to observe, "Probably similar to the reason Prongs isn't down here with us."

"Marly's got hot date with Evans?" Sirius ventured, becoming disinterested now that the excitement had passed.

"No, she's probably _helping_ Lily," clarified Lupin, returning to his novel.

* * *

Remus was to be proven correct when, twenty-two minutes later (7:04 exactly, and five minutes after James had hurtled in from the boys' dorm to pace awkwardly around the mantel), Lily Evans descended into the Gryffindor Common Room.

James was the only boy in the room who even pretended not to stare. (Except for Joey Raskin, who everyone knew was gay, and Frank Longbottom, who glanced over appreciatively and then quickly returned his attention to his girlfriend, Alice.)

James tried very hard, he really did, but eventually his instinct won out and he whistled low.

"_Damn_, Evans."

'Damn, Evans' was right. Lily (who was really quite attractive on a normal day) had raided her friends' closets for the perfect ensemble-and was seconds away from achieving her goal for the night, which was (simply put) to make James Potter drool.

The only bit of the outfit that had come from Lily's own trunk were the boots. Almost knee-high, dark brown leather, and with a bit (okay a _lot_) of a heel, tonight was only the second time these boots had ever made it out of the box. (Lily told everyone she liked to save them for 'special occasions', but the truth was she thought they were a little bit too, er, tart.) Add to that a hunter green skirt that hit her mid-thigh (courtesy of Marlene), a pale-pink-almost-cream v-necked jumper (a Ravenclaw sixth-year's), and the fact that Lily had paid special attention to her auburn locks-well, you can understand why James might have a hard time pretending not to stare.

Lily never wore a whole lot of makeup, and tonight was no exception, but James thought he preferred to see her that way. He certainly didn't think she needed any makeup at all to make her pretty (unlike a few girls he could probably name...and who Sirius had probably snogged).

Suddenly aware that everyone in the Common Room was either staring at Lily because she was stunning or staring at James because he was frozen behind a sofa, the latter rushed over to take his date's arm. She smiled a little bit, and (on the inside) he positively beamed.

"Let's get out of here."


	4. Chapter Four

*In Which Sirius is a Prat*

* * *

If James Potter were the type of seventeen-year-old boy who kept a detailed diary of his romantic exploits, his friends would have simply waited until he was asleep and rifled through his things to find out what happened on Date #4 with Lily Evans. However, unfortunately for all involved, he was _not_ that type of seventeen-year-old boy.

* * *

"I'm tired, and I've got to rest up for the match," James begged off, as the other Marauders (mainly Sirius) hounded him for details of his (Sirius-labelled) 'snogfest' with Evans.

"Tough," his (former) best mate countered, blocking James' escape route to his nice, warm bed. "The sooner you tell us, the sooner you can go to bed..." he wheedled, beckoning Remus over to offer support.

"I just really can't believe you don't _want_ to tell us all about it," Remus shrugged. "Unless..."

"Unless it went badly!" Peter sounded panicked. "Was it awful? Did you screw it up? Did she-"

"Wormtail," James said, monotone. "Maybe, just maybe, it went perfectly fine and I have nothing to report and I just want to sleep now because we have to cream Slytherin tomorrow."

"Or _maybe_," mocked Sirius, "she rejected you - again - and you're embarrassed to say." He smirked. "Well, tough. Spill."

James glared at Sirius and shoved him out of the way. "Shut. The. _Fuck_. Up. I told you it was fine," he growled, tugging off his trainers and falling back on the bed.

"Clearly not fine enough," Sirius muttered, now apparently resigned to James' silence on the matter.

James made a face. "You've got Quidditch tomorrow, too, don't forget. And," he continued gleefully," as your captain, I _order_ you to go the fuck to sleep."

Both Sirius and Remus rolled their eyes at this statement (although for entirely different reasons). Sirius, however, seemed to realize the truth in his friend's statement and sat on his own bed with a sigh. But not without the last word.

"Eh, better luck next time, Prongs."

James threw a pillow, but missed Padfoot's head by at least three feet.

"Good _night_."

* * *

A/N: because I guess I'm doing these now. Okay, I know this sort of seems like filler...but I promise it's important! and I'm trying to keep the chapters pretty short (because, honestly, that means more updates and I have undiagnosed minor ADHD when it comes to writing), so I just went ahead and made this bit its own chapter, even though it IS quite short. #i'm not even sorry. Although I haven't said up until now...do review! It is MUCHLY appreciated, especially since this is officially my first ever fanfic.

So yeah, so far I've been updating, like, an average of every two days. But that's mostly because I had a lot of this written already and decided I was happy with it. I have another month until school starts back up, though, at which point I wil _try very very hard _to update once a week. In other news, I have no idea how long this is going to end up; however, I do have an endgame/pseudo-plan, so fear not! Love to all. xx


	5. Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

*In Which the Marauders Embrace Their Curiosity*

"Fine, just really really fine."

"That's it? Just fine? Impossible. Spill. What happened?"

"Well it was going so well..."

"But?"

"But...well, he asked again."

"Again? I thought he promised to leave off for a while."

"He did."

"But he asked anyway?"

"Yes. And then looked like a kicked puppy when I told him no. Again."

"Git."

"But the thing is...Well, never mind."

This was the conversation overheard by Peter Pettigrew as he followed Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon down to the Quidditch pitch for the Gryffindor-vs.-Slytherin match. It was not, however, the entire conversation.

Having relayed his news to Remus once they were seated in the stands, Peter heaved a sigh and glanced toward the head of red hair sitting a few rows in front of them.

"So that's why he wouldn't say anything, then," Lupin mused. "But James being persistent is nothing new."

"I wonder why it bothers her so much," agreed Peter. "Lily rejecting him is nothing new either, though."

And with that closing thought, the whistle blew and James Potter promptly scored five goals, did a few aerials, yelled at Loggins to catch the snitch already, dodged three bludgers, and then assisted on another six goals. (If this were from James' perspective, then there would probably be blow-by-blow descriptions of every second, but it's not. It's from Peter's. So a brief overview is just fine, because Peter understands Quidditch perfectly well, but doesn't possess quite the same level of enthusiasm for the wizarding game as do James and Sirius.) Then Loggins finally did catch the snitch and the game was over, 230-110, Gryffindor wins.

In the aftermath, Remus and Peter did not have the opportunity to confront James about Date #4 with Lily Evans. By the the time they made it out of the stands and onto the pitch, the rest of Gryffindor was there, too, hugging (Marlene and everyone) and back-pounding (everyone and James) and high-fiving (everyone) and snogging (Sirius and at least three different sixth- and seventh-years, including one Ravenclaw).

So Peter congratulated his friends and decided that Date #4 with Lily Evans could wait. Which it did, it waited until Monday afternoon.

The remainder of Saturday was filled with more hugging (tipsy James) and more back-pounding (with bets being placed on who would be knocked over first) and more high-fiving (when Lily became the undisputed Gobstones champion of Gryffindor tower) and more snogging (basically everyone).

And then Sunday was predictably quiet, because everyone who wasn't hungover was busy studying (Lily, Remus, a fifth-year prefect, and most of the first-years).

Remus Lupin was awake and studying not because he had imbibed significantly less alcohol than his friends, but because he possessed an unusually high tolerance for the stuff (he told everyone it was just good genes, but the Marauders figured it must come with being a werewolf, which no one was really supposed to know about). So although his study habits suffered near the full moon, he made up for it by never having much trouble with hangovers (except for the once).

The quiet of this Sunday allowed Remus the opportunity to subtly question Lily about Date #4 with James Potter, but she brushed him off awkwardly and fled to the library.

Unfortunately, James (for obvious reasons) hadn't exactly been around to answer questions.

The previous night...

"CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!"

"Padfoot. I'm not even drinking anything," James slurred at his best mate. Sirius reflected briefly that it was probably for the best that they had run out of firewhisky half an hour ago.

"Will you two shut up?" moaned Peter, his head in his hands.

"I was talking to Pete," Sirius enunciated carefully. "He should chug water because he's clearly too drunk to stand."

"I can stand!" Peter attempted to get up and wobbled a little (okay, a lot). "Just...just fine."

Sirius and James shared an eye-roll and each grabbed their friend by an arm.

"Sure, mate."

"Let's get you up to bed."

Even tipsy (okay, drunk), Sirius figured they were pretty swell mates.

"No, no no, I'm fiiiine," pleaded Peter, unconvincingly.

"You've got nothing to prove to us, mate." Remus strolled up and gave the other two a hand getting Peter up the stairs.

"Where've you been?" Sirius demanded. He was mostly joking, but the look on Moony's face indicated it might not have really come across that way...

"Not stumbling drunk," Remus scowled.

Sirius shrugged off this intended insult ("That's not a where, that's a...how or a what or something...") and together the three Marauders hauled their fourth through the doorway and into his bed.

Having fulfilled his "fun quota" for the evening (at least, that was how James and Sirius termed it), Remus also opted to turn in, leaving the other two to their own devices for the rest of the night. Sirius decided this was the perfect time to get James to drunkenly 'fess up to what had really happened on Date #4 with Lily Evans.

"He said she slapped him?"

"Well, he was pretty drunk at the time..."

"On their date?!"

"Last night!"

"Oh." Remus relaxed. "Well, she just said he kept badgering her to kiss him.

Honestly, I'm starting to think we should just stay out of this entirely."

"Well, she didn't just give him a polite no...even if there wasn't a slap," countered Sirius, shaking his head. "But then, that's probably just James being theatrical."

Remus rolled his eyes. "So James being James, then."

"Yes," Sirius affirmed, before latching back onto his friend's earlier statement. "And no. No, we should not stay out of this entirely, because they will likely both ruin their lives, our lives, the lives of everyone at this school, and possibly even the-"

"Uh-huh..."

"No, I mean it. They're Head Boy and Head Girl. If they don't get along, why should anyone get along? The whole universe would descend into chaos!"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say James' theatricality was rubbing off on you..."

"Ha ha, Moony, very funny. I'll have you know I'm always theatrical."

"Oh, no need to tell me," muttered Remus.

Sirius ignored him. "So, clearly they're both hiding something."

"Something besides the fact that James tried to kiss her again?"

"Yes, something besides that. And the way he told it, he didn't actually try, he just asked..."

"That's the way she told it, too," Remus admitted, "which makes me think he tried."


	6. Chapter Six

*In Which James Makes an Admittance*

* * *

Lily couldn't forgive him. She just _couldn't_. Constant badgering was one thing, but what James had done (okay, more like attempted) was absolutely another thing altogether. She really couldn't.

Okay so she hadn't exactly been quick to say no. But he sure had been quick to _not wait for her answer_. (Which he surely should have known would be no. Right?)

Couldn't. Couldn't couldn't couldn't couldn't couldn't.

* * *

"Cheek. I landed on cheek, okay?" James rolled his eyes. "_Face_ cheek. You're like a bunch of 12-year-old girls, you know that?"

"Pathetic insults will get you nowhere," countered Sirius. "Planned cheek? Last minute dive? Intentional turn?"

"Wait what?"

"Did she turn so you missed, or did you originally just plan on cheek, or did you-"

"Okay look. Or actually, _listen_. Because I'm only going to say this once. ..._Moony_."

Remus glanced up from his book. "I'm listening!"

James narrowed his eyes. "Fine."

"Go!" Sirius insisted. Peter backed him up with some enthusiastic nodding.

James took a deep breath. "So after we left the Three Broomsticks we were walking really slowly and then she kind of stopped... andImayhaveaskedtokissheraga in-" (the other three groaned, and James continued) "-andshedidn'tsayanythingrightawaysoIjust wentforit...and then I saw this look she was giving me but I couldn't just not kiss her...so she sort of turned, and I sort of turned, and it was like this awkward continental cheek-kiss thing." He scowled. "Happy?"

Remus shook his head. "Merlin, Prongs. You just don't know when to quit."

Offended, James tried several varieties of excuse: "Well she didn't say-I saved it! I didn't kiss her, not really really kiss her, and she's-she's...yeah she's pissed," he finished miserably.

"Well, mate, you're clearly never gonna recover from this one. So whaddaya say we get so completely shit-faced that you forget all about it?" Sirius dug threw his trunk until he found what he was looking for and held up an unlabelled bottle, which was half-full of a suspiciously dark liquid.

"Um, I don't think that's enough to get all four of us drunk," Peter noted.

"And bloody hell do I want to be drunk," moaned James.

Remus frowned and snatched the bottle from Sirius. "It happened over 48 hours ago. I hardly think getting drunk now is going to make a difference." He inspected the bottle. "Besides, I think Wormtail's right. This wouldn't cut it anyway."

Sirius was already halfway out the door with the Marauders Map. "Grab the cloak, Prongs!"

"Um, where are you going?" asked Peter and Remus at once.

"To get some more from Hogsmeade, duh," James replied, joining Sirius at the door. He had already pulled on the invisibility cloak, and only his comically disembodied head was visible.

"With what money, exactly?" Remus queried.

"Shit," James and Sirius said together.

"Well, Prongs, don't you have-?" began Sirius hopefully.

"The parents cut me off until my birthday, remember?" James sat on the floor just inside their dormitory door, shrugging off the cloak and looking generally forlorn. "The only bit I've got stashed away is kind of for..." he trailed off awkwardly, trying not to blush.

"Right, for Evans," Remus finished for him. "That's alright, we don't have to get drunk tonight, guys."

"I'm with Moony," Peter declared, starting for bed. "Besides, it's awfully late."

"Aw, Wormy, you're just remembering the last time you got pissed," Sirius chuckled.

"Exactly! Because it was _only Saturday and I think I'm still hungover._"

"I don't think it works like that," James interjected. "But go to bed if you want." He shrugged and looked at Remus.

"Huh-uh, I'm with Pete. It's late, and you're stupid."

"Right." Sirius grabbed the bottle back from his friend. "So we'll just get drunk without you. Well, maybe not," he amended, frowning at the half-empty bottle. "At least not _drunk_ drunk."

"Right. Not sloshed drunk," agreed James.

"Only tipsy drunk."

"If that."

"Of course. Only a bit left anyway."

"And then bed."

"Not sloshed drunk."

"Nope."

* * *

_Roughly 2.5 hours later..._

Unfortunately for the two sober Marauders (who were, incidentally, still trying to sleep), James remembered a second (full) fifth he had stashed at the bottom of his trunk. For just such an occasion.

"Crying on the breeeeeeeeeeeze..."

"The pain is _calling_-"

"OH MAAAAAAAAAAANDY!"

Remus finally sat up in bed and turned his wand on the record player. It stopped spinning with a frightening sort of screech, which caused both Sirius and James to whirl around.

Remus glared. "BED. NOW."

The two drunk Marauders just sniggered.

"Aw, Mum, must we?" Sirius whined, contorting his face into something that was probably supposed to be sympathetic.

James threw him an elbow. "Um, Padfoot, I think he's actually mad. Maybe we should-"

"Damn right I'm fucking mad, you arse clowns! If I wanted to stay up all bloody night drinking TWO FUCKING BOTTLES OF FIREWHISKY and singing along to Barry motherfucking Manilow as loud as hell with you little _shits_, then I fucking would have."

Even Peter (who was also now sitting up in bed) looked kind of terrified.

Sirius stood up slowly, holding out one of the (almost empty) bottles. "Alrigh', mate. Goin' t' bed. Easy there." He reached over carefully and dropped the bottle back into James' trunk. "See? No more booze." He held up his empty hands. "All done."

Behind him, James had already leapt into bed and was pretending to snore.

Remus scowled and threw a book at Sirius before flopping back down and covering his head with a pillow. "I have _two exams_ tomorrow, arsehole."

Sirius winced and leaned near James' bed. "Also, I'm pretty sure it's gettin' near his 'time of the month,' if ya know what I mean," he muttered sullenly before stumbling over a shoe on the way to his own bed.

"_I heard that._"

* * *

A/N: ohmygoshyouguys. I can't believe it's already taking me WAY longer than I promised to update. But I got tipsy and wrote this (and then edited ;) ) so here we are. In my defense, my poor laptop was in ICU at the apple store for like all of last week while I was at my parents' house. So that's it. And that's also why this is kind of lacking in plot after the first few paragraphs...I was going to make the chapter itself longer, but since I felt like it could end here and I was feeling SOOOO guilty about not updating soon like I'd promised, I decided to go for it. Plus, I love writing drunk!Marauders, so there's a bit of that here (maybe gratuitous, but I'm sorry-not. That's what fanfiction is for, let's be honest, that and smut (which there won't be a whole lot of here bc that's not really my style and not really in the spirit of this fic which is TOTALLY FLUFF, again let's be honest). :D)

Thank you thank you thank you for reading and reviewing, you guys are so wonderful! Especially the bestie (UKnoWhoUR) who informed me last night that alcohol+marauders is her new otp. lolthxgrl


	7. Chapter Seven

*In Which Padfoot Visits the Library*

* * *

**A/N: um, well, here we are. Profuse apologies or myriad excuses? What with producing a show here on campus, regular physical therapy, crazy-involved film theory class, and butt-kicking african civ, short and busy Christmas break that's almost over...yes, here we are. This chapter has not only been a long time coming (duh), but it also took me long time to get exactly right. That is to say, I suck. But enjoy the update! Thanks for the reviews, always!**

**About Lily: yes, it IS odd that she won't let James kiss her, you're all picking up on that correctly. :)**

* * *

Lily and Marlene were studying quietly in the back of the library, as was their Thursday evening tradition. Lily was intent on next week's Transfiguration essay, but Marlene was fed up with homework and allowed her gaze to wander about the library. She chewed absently on the end of her quill and caught the eye of a very unexpected person entering the library.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Marlene whispered sardonically as Sirius joined them at the back table.

Lily finally looked up from her essay, somewhat disoriented. "Sirius? Is it...is there...are you guys pulling a prank in here or something?"

Sirius looked offended. "What, a bloke can't come study in the library with his classmates?"

"You didn't bring any homework," Lily pointed out.

He swung his feet up onto the table with practiced nonchalance and gestured to the surrounding bookshelves. "How can one _not_ study in the library, I ask you?"

Lily frowned slightly. "Is there something you want?"

Sirius cast a sly glance in Marlene's direction. "You mean besides-"

Marlene spluttered and half-gagged on her quill, desperately cutting Sirius off. "NO," she choked out as Sirius smirked. She quickly dove beneath the table, pretending to fumble with her book bag.

"Marlene! What's wrong?" Lily's concern quickly faded to confusion as she looked from Sirius to her coughing friend. "What am I missing?"

Sirius met her gaze. "Nothing really," he said with a straight face. "That is, unless McKinnon here has something to share."

Marlene sprang back up from beneath the table. "Nope. No. Nothing. _Ever_. At all." She glared at Sirius. His grey eyes smirked back at her.

"Alright then," he said. "Nothing you're missing. Just thought I'd pop in for a chat...with my two favorite gals," he added mischievously.

"Oh please," Lily groaned. "You are not copying our homework."

"Go ask Remus, would you?" Marlene chipped in.

Lily winced ever so slightly at the name, Sirius noted with interest.

"Fine, maybe I will." He pretended to be hurt by their low opinion of him and sulked for a moment to give them the full effect. Neither Lily or Marlene gave him any such satisfaction, however, and Sirius eventually gave up and sauntered out of the library.

Winking at a couple of Ravenclaws giggling by the door, he failed to noticed that Marlene had looked up from her books to watch him go-earning her an elbow in the ribs from Lily, who whispered something less-than-kind to her friend with a scowl at Sirius Black's departing backside.

* * *

Having been so rudely dismissed by the girls in the library, Sirius was at a loss for what to do. James was drilling with Chasers out on the pitch, Peter was serving a detention for making fun of the Diviniation professor, Remus was studying irritably in their dorm room, and there were still two hours left until curfew. So much he could do with two whole hours, but a quick survey of the Map showed Snivellus safely in the dungeons with his fellow Slytherins, so that was out. A run with Padfoot might not be such a bad idea, he decided.

Sirius did not normally shift to his animagus form apart from the full moon, but his lack of motivation to do schoolwork and the absence of friends and enemies alike provided him with a rare opportunity to cavort like a puppy through the chilly, deserted grounds of Hogwarts. This also gave him time to think, which he rarely allowed himself too much of.

He tried to keep his mind off of particularly distressing thoughts, such as those of his family, life after Hogwarts, and the impending trouble with that Voldemort bloke. Instead, he found himself thinking about Marlene McKinnon's hair, and her bizarre rudeness to him in the library.

Her hair was a lovely, coffee sort of brown, and rather straight with a few random curls. It was longer even than what was considered fashionable, and rumour was she hadn't cut it in all her time at Hogwarts. Sirius considered this very impressive, considering that he himself was meticulous about his hair.

He supposed it wasn't really so strange how she'd acted in the library. At least, not in light of the past weekend's, er, activities. It was at the party after the Quidditch game, and they had both been a little drunk, and chatting in the common room had led to stumbling through the corridors, which had led to finding a broom closet to snog in (one of Sirius' favorites, incidentally)...which had then led to Marlene losing her shit because apparently she and Lily had made some kind of pact in their fourth year to never, _ever_ snog a Marauder. She really emphasized the _never ever_ of it all, and Sirius was rather offended. Still, he supposed her reaction in the library was logical, as she _clearly_ hadn't told Lily about what had transpired.

Sirius chuckled to himself, and it came out as a soft _whuff_, which was then answered by an incredulous "Padfoot?!"

His ears perked up, and he could discern the outline of James coming toward him, followed very unfortunately by the other two Gryffindor Chasers. James realized his mistake and simply gestured for Sirius to get lost, making some excuse about rabbits to the others.

Padfoot waited until the Chasers were inside the castle before shifting back into Sirius and strolling casually in the front doors, where James was waiting to pull him into an alcove.

"What're you, gonna shag me against the wall now?" Sirius cracked, shrugging out of his friend's grip.

James ignored the comment. "What were you doing out there? Somebody could have seen you!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Heaven forbid someone sees a dog running around outdoors. Merlin, Prongs, you can be awfully skittish sometimes."

"Well I didn't know you'd be out," James huffed at his best mate, heading up the stairs. "Reckon I almost gave you away."

"That you did, mate." Sirius patted his shoulder. "Not exactly my fault, is it?" He paused a moment on the stair before continuing, "Oh hey. I think I might know why you're having such trouble with Evans."

James, his interest piqued, came to a halt, forcing Sirius to stop with him. "And?" he demanded.

Sirius chuckled. "It's pretty dumb," he admitted.

"Just tell me, for Merlin's sake!"

"Don't get your knickers in a twist. Apparently she and McKinnon made some stupid oath not to snog any of us, and Evans is much more committed to that than McKinnon," he smirked.

James looked torn between relief and devastation. "That's all then? Just some silly pinky-swear... Wait? You snogged McKinnon? When?" He remembered his own predicament in time to save Sirius from answering. "Ugh, she'll never let me if she doesn't know Marlene already broke their stupid oath. I don't suppose you could...drop a hint?" he gave Sirius a pleading look.

"Oh, stop it," Sirius replied, continuing up to Gryffindor Tower. "Tell her yourself! McKinnon would skin me and eat me."

"That's...vivid."

"You know what I mean."

"Well you've got to help me," James insisted.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I know we've had this conversation before, but why _Evans_? The one girl in this school who's not a part of your bloody fan club?"

James scowled. "Shut it. At least she's finally dating me."

"Oh, is that still on then?" Sirius smirked. "She didn't dump you yet?"

"No, and she isn't going to!" James sped up as they neared the portrait of the Fat Lady. "I'm asking her to Hogsmeade for Sunday, and I'm just going to fucking kiss her! Kneazle whiskers!"

The portrait swung open and Sirius followed James into the common room.

"That's m'boy."


End file.
